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Favorite Character(s) by P.I. Barrington

Posted by
Krystal Larson
at
4:00 AM
Wednesday, April 11, 2012

A favorite character is an elusive thing. On one hand you have a character that captivates you as author and hopefully does the same for your readers. On the other hand, there are other characters that make you love them against your will. Not only that, but if you're a prolific writer, there develops a carousel of characters that revolve around your love for them, moving in and out of your awareness but all demanding attention.Funny thing about that is, an author loves their characters—all their characters. You love them because of their personalities, their heroism, and their sense of humor in the direst of situations. When I first wrote Crucifying Angel, I loved my heroine, Payce Halligan. She struggled with enormous guilt and dealt with it by slightly compulsive target practice; she's dead serious about her job and shies away from any type of new relationships—especially the one that's creeping up on her with her new partner, British Ex-Detective Chief Inspector, Gavin McAllister. Speaking of tall dark and British, Gavin's hard not to love. He too struggles under enormous guilt and is in Las Vegas desperately trying to run away from it. Problem is he's completely out of his element and not just the weather, lol! And Nick Kincaid and Amy Smart in Miraculous Deception? They're definitely part of the comic relief of that crime thriller—cracking jokes and making fun of each other literally under terrifying conditions. They both started out as negative characters threatening the growing relationship between Payce and Gavin but by the third book, Final Deceit, I loved them both and had tremendous fun writing them!Khai Zafara my heroine in Inamorata Crossing, I loved from the start. She kicked ass from the first line and slowly softened through her memories of her father's murder and Teyrnan Sajan as her literal savior and romantic interest. I loved Khai for her strength and tenderness and Teyrnan for his unshakable sense of humor and ability to irritate Khai no matter how she tries to ignore him. There's nowhere for them to go but toward each other.And finally, my latest and so far biggest love is Isadora DayStar. She too, like all my others, labors under huge guilt, the deepest guilt of them all. She deals with her horrendous self-reproach by her addiction to the drug Ingentin, ironically the cause of the guilt in the first place. That addiction takes her to the lowest places in her life from prostitution of the most debasing kind to humiliation by her peers. And yet there's this hidden strength that she doesn't know she has; that makes her able to sacrifice herself for another person. It's when she's at her lowest point that she's at her best. I guess I have a thing for underdogs, those who appear weak but are truly strong where it counts the most.Which character is my favorite? None and all of them, how can you choose? Each of them is special, with individual traits, personalities, foibles, and mistakes—each one is different from the others both in appearance and temperament. Which one is the most fun? That's easy. Whichever one I'm writing at the moment!